Healing Justice VR

CAN WE HEAL TRAUMA THROUGH DIALOGUE?

Healing Justice VR is an interactive experience where audience members converse with an incarcerated person, in a role-play scenario where they are preparing for an eventual meeting with the victim of a crime. In Victim Offender Dialog programs, the responsible person undergoes months of preparation before victims elect to meet in order to ask questions in a safe environment. The answers to these questions can provide closure to the victim as well as powerful insights to the responsible person as to the impact of their crimes. This VR experience allows the viewer to choose the path of the dialogue, which makes the narrative feel like a truly organic conversation.

This VR experience was based on the film of the same title. Healing Justice is the newest World Trust film by Dr. Shakti Butler. Designed to create dialogue, the film highlights the need to address trauma, justice and healing as part of a more comprehensive approach to addressing the school-to-prison pipeline. The film engages audiences in a national dialogue that investigates and considers alternatives to our current punitive model of justice and the need for institutional policy change.